My Scary Blog

Building up

    I have recently made a few purchases to help move me along this year. I was able to get in on the sale at the anatomical chart company and picked up 4 bucky skulls and a small bag of bones. 
   
I am just about to start work on making a few paper mache props following the lead of Krough, check out the site. http://www.grimvisions.com/
Anyways I have also started some sandcasting for a few tombstone projects I have planned. The process is not hard it just takes time getting the right look that I am going for. Here is my first pull.
   
I have also started working on a few air props for this year. I hope to have a small garage haunt this year if all goes well. Well I will post more as progress is made.

9:04 PM - 6/28/2006

Zombie take one, just call me AL

I had alittle free time tonight so I did a quick paint job tonight. This was just more of a test bed so no maing fun of  how it turned out. I had plans of using another accent color first but then decided that maybe a white dry brushing followed by a earthy brown color. I forgot one simple thing in the process....no brown paint. So here he his in all his glory, minus the brown paint.
     

The idea is he will be either one of the undead walink in the cemetery or one of the undead digging up some of his friends with shovel in hand. I just purchased quite a few 4th class Bucky skulls to play with paper mache and plan on making a few of the ground breakers out of those and paper mache. Well off I go wish me luck.

8:27 PM - 4/4/2006

Back For Another Year

Hello again everyone. It has been awhile since my last post and after recently visiting my favorite forum www.unpleasantstreet.com I reawoke to the wonders of creation. After seeing all the great props everyone has started this year I decided to start kinda where I left off last year. LATEX..... Oh and what a wonderful thing it is. Take a look at the first stages of my new creation.

 

 

 
I know it does not look that great but with paint it will look better( I hope). Well I still have to decide what this will become and a tone of planing to do for this next year. I will make sure to keep the blog updated so check back often.

9:08 PM - 3/27/2006

The big night has come and gone.

Well hello again. I survived the big night and all went well. I had such a good time and we have 105 TOT's this year. I was a little dissapointed because hardly anyone on our street had there light on this year so there were not near as many TOT's. I did see one thing this year that I thought was great, kids walking again. In the past few years it seemed that everyone was ridding in cars or trucks from house to house and I think that kinda kills the Halloween Spirit. I have to say that all the work was well worth it and plan to do this every year from now on as long as I can. I truely loved to see the scares at first and then smiles on the kids(and parrents) faces. OK, enough of all the jabbering here are some pics. Sorry for the quality I was so busy that I never had time to find a tripod.
     
 Here are a few of the yard. I went with only 2 blue lights and really liked the results it seemed very spooky and just dark enough to keep you guessing.
       

 Here are a few more of the front porch are This is where I was sitting in a chair and waiting for the unsuspecting TOT's.
Well thats about it for 2005. I already have plans stiring for next year and will be working on projects and posting. See ya in 2006.

6:36 PM - 11/5/2005

Skip to setup

Hello I know it has been a while since my last post but a lot has happened. I did managed to find a fairly cheap fence option. Here are some pics I took this afternoon. I also added dirt to the coffin and blucky which helped alittle.
       
And here are a few with my lovely wife and daughter helping out. I was so thankful for there help, with out them this would not have happened this year.
   
I also took a few night shots before I packed it all up for the night.
     
 Sorry they were blurry I could not find the tripod. I have also decided to switch out the green with another blue light. The two colors just seem to contrast too much in such a small space and seem to seperate the graveyard in the middle (which is not an effect I am wanting). The last picutre is of the front porch, it is hard to tell but there are tons of spider webs (thanks to Nicki and Alex) and cheese cloth hanging. There was alot I did not get finished this year but overall think it went great for my first year. I will see how everone reacts on the big night and hopefully all teh kids like it. Make sure to comment, I want to know what everyone thinks.

7:27 PM - 10/29/2005

Only time will tell.

I sure have been hard at work...just not on my props! With closing on our house(finally) and the day job it seems like there is just no time to work anything that has to do with halloween lately. My wife and I took our daughter to pick out a few pumpkins here is a great pic. I will post more of teh ones we got and the carving process.
 
Alex is almost 5 so that is one big pumpkin. I also have been racking my brain tring to figure out a very (and I mean as close to free as you can get) way to build the fence. I just cant afford the PVC fence this year as it would have cost well over 100 dollars before paint. I have decided on buying a few bundles of stakes(the kind used for surveys and concreate jobs) and 1x2's. I think the cost will be around $25 before paint so this is a doable option. Just not sure if it will look good at all our how it will hold up. I may also try to use the technique I used on the coffin and burn the wood instead of paint, which should not take more that one bottle of propane and that is much cheaper than the paint option. Well I am off to get the supplys and a few more lights. Only 8 days left.

7:23 AM - 10/22/2005

Only 18 days left

i wish I could say I am ready for this weekend to put out my props but have been falling behind. I do have a few in progress pictures of the tombstones. These have come decent for my first try but have a few more to do and hope they will be even better. 
     
Let me know what you think. I should all 7 tombstones finished this weekend and will try to get more pics posted. I am still planning on getting the cemetery fence in place by the end of the weekend also(wish me luck). I'll report in again after the weekend with hopfully more progress.

5:56 PM - 10/12/2005

Just another workday

I was able to really kick out a few things today. The fog chiller has been tested but with mixed results. The Burried Alive coffin is done, here is a pic.
  
 I decided against the second ground breaker this year but plan to build a electric motor driven grave grabber(idea provided buy Kevin242) next year. I started work on the graveyard grounds keeper and his lantern. The PVC is cut, just need to fill it out and put some clothes on him. I started painting the tombstones and have decided to not put names and dates on the rest of them. I just dont have the time right now but have big plans for next year. I have learned a ton working with these this year and am not completly satisfied but can always rework them next year. I was also able to buy the lumber for the porch extension and will have the walls built by next weekend. These will only go up on halloween night so there will be alot of work to do that day. I have also broken my budget by a few dollars, but after getting started this was kind of expected. We are also awaiting some free lumber sourced up by a good friend to use as a cemetery fence this year. I simply did not have near enough money to do the fence right and rather that build something and not be happy with it I am opting to focus on building something that will just keep people out of the yard. This was a hard decision but after looking at the cost today (almost 100.00) I had to make the decision. Well I am off to check how the stones are drying and maybe I can have them finished with the base coat tonight so I can have them finished tomorrow.

7:58 PM - 10/8/2005

Not much progress

After being sick for the last few days and nothing being done I will be starting the last big run to finish my props.Here is a breakdown of what I would like done this year.

6-10 Tombstones - 5 stones cut still need painting.

Burried Alive coffin

Cenetery fence

Corpse ground breaker - Done except for shreded cheese cloth as clothes.

Second bround breaker more zombie/undead.

Cemetery grounds keeper dummy

Haunted Light sign post

Various lighting for yard and porch

porch extenstion walls

Popup coffin

Fog Chiller - Done but untested.

Hot Glue Gun webber

 

Sa you can tell I am really far behind. My goals for the weekend are to have the tombstones, cemetery fence, and Burried Alive coffin done. If this happens then I should be able to get everything done and up the weekend before Halloween. I have also been reworking my site and should have a place to put my project info soon.

 

9:08 AM - 10/6/2005

OCT 1st time is running out

Hello all, I am off and running today to try to get my blucky finished. I have decided to go with a half corpse groundbreaker and begain the staining today. I am using Minwax gel stain in Antique Maple for my rot color. Here are some pics.
     
This is one coat applyed with a sponge brush and I think it turned out very well. I have picked up some foam board but to my suprise it is now 12.00 a sheet. This is up from 9.00 a few months ago and I am not sure what is happening. I have contacted the closest Lowes and will most lickly be special ordering some 2" foam for next year. I am just not sure how to break it to my wife that I want to spend several hundered dollars just for foam. Oh well that is someting that can be taken care of after the 31st. I am finishing up my design for our front yard and will try to have a picute of that soon. I have decided to extend our front porch to add more room for props and am working now to find the best way to build a(cheap)easy to break down and store wall system. I also wanted to let everyone know that I am currently storing all my pics at http://photobucket.com/albums/b391/sgtdrpepper/ so feel free to take a look. I will also now be turning on th comment option on my blog post so feel free to let me know what you think.

1:55 PM - 10/1/2005

The skin thickens

Hello all
Well I was able to get a little bit more work done on the corpse tonight.Check out the pics.
As you can see the torso is done and so is the skull. I am still in the process of both sets of leg bones and hip.
     
I have also been playing around with creating some hands that will be ground breakers next to several tombstones. The first pic is a picture of my first attempt and the second is of my latest. Both of these are using hangers, duct tape, and cotton balls. I am still tring to figure out the easiest way to add mass to the palms I may try some cotton batting like pillow stuffing and then cover wil paper towels. This trial and error stuff is so much fun. I should have a list of props on the next blog that I would like to have in place the week before Halloween. This weekend will probably be the last trip to Home Depot which will drain my alloted cash. I still have to get several sheets of 1" foam board and also the rest of the materials for the fence. Cant for get paint I am praying that there is some dark exterior paint in the opps paints. If not its a gallon of white and pint of black. I will also be tring the sand technique for the next tombstone. I will paint a base coat and then before it dries lightly spread some sand over it then repeat painting after the sand coat is dry. I really hope the results are go as I can afford as this late in the game to mess up a good tombstone. See ya soon.

8:52 PM - 9/29/2005

OK the pictures are ready...

OK, so I am to cheap to go out and buy a digital camera so I had to resort to borrowing one. I do have limited funds this year 250 big ones to be exact so I try to borrow as much as possible. And luckly I have good friends and family that I think are now understanding my obsession better. Back to business, here are a few shots of the corpsing process.
 
These shots show one layer of paper towls and laytex by the way here is a shot of the laytex I am using. Go get some of this stuff it is from Cementex and cost only 15.00.

Also here is a pic of my first 2 tombstones, dont laugh too hard. I have never done anything like this and this first year is a learning process. The second picture is of my next go at a different tombstone, I have not added the text yet.
   
 Well Thats all for now I have class today and tommorow but hope to get going again Thursday and will have more pics then.

4:34 PM - 9/27/2005

What a day

Well I have had a wonderful Saturday and actually got a little bit done today. I was able to come up with a name today the first haunt will be called Oak Creek Mortuary. I thought this would be a great starter and we can always change the name later on to suite the settings. I did a little work on the tombstones and have planned a trip to home depot tommorow to get more foam board. I really hate that for some reason I can only find 1" foam in this area. I also made a trip out today to big lots and got a ton of the cheep spoder webs and few other small goodies. The big step tonight though was my first attempt at corpsing a bluck. I have finished the first coat of paper towles and latex and all seems to be going great. While at HD I will be picking up some minwax gel stain and If all goes well I will be staining a corpse next weekend. I am also trying to get my wife and 4 year old daughter more involved with my projects, which can be hard when you are learning as you go but I hope this can become a family affair since they both love this crazy halloween stuff. Well I think that is all for now.

9:35 PM - 9/24/2005

First Post

I have decided to start work on a blog site that will act as a way to collect my thought as the 2005 halloween season approaches. I will at some point incorporate this into my new site that I am working on www.myscarysite.com. Please bear with me as a start to piece together what this season will include. I have decided that the bear minimum would be a 8-10 stone graveyard with fencing. I would also like to add atleast 2 static props this year and anything else that comes along before the big day. I have also started to try to put a team of friends together to start working on this year and the following years haunts. My goal is to within 5 years be forced to move to another venue and also of course be able to make enough money from year to year to keep thing running. I guess thats it for now.

10:45 PM - 9/23/2005

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Halloween and yard haunt related blog.

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